Nola Metro Grand Reference Opinions

I heard the Baby Grand Nolas at RMAF last year. Walking down the hall outside the room, I was drawn in by the very dynamic and clean sound being put out, as they were really turned up with a track from Gladiator playing, a big sounding orchestral piece with which I was quite familiar.

Walking in, I was struck by how open and clear the presentation was, full of crisp dynamic attack and a good top to bottom balance. However, once I sat down, all the magic was gone. The very large baffle and array of drivers are mounted fairly high up compared to where the ear is situated when sitting. And because of the line array approach, all the goodness was now shooting overhead.

It looks like the Grand may not be subject to the shortcomings of its baby brother, as the array of mids and tweeters looks to start closer to the ground, allowing your ears to be on axis when seated. If that's the case, they'd make for one heck of a system that would offer up almost unlimited dynamics.

I also heard a few Wilson models at the show, and none of them sounded quite as good as the Baby (while I was standing at least). The Nola is one of the few open baffle speakers I've really liked. If they could only move that second woofer of the Baby to a position above the mid/tweeter array and bring the array down, to seated ear level . . .

Good points Vladimir.

Nola's room at RMAF was good sized, and seemingly well treated. Like I said, when standing, the speakers sounded fantastic, no sense of overhang or room bloom, or funky reverb from bare walls and tile floors. Granted, it was a little larger suite than most people have for a dedicated room, but they are large speakers, and had no problem filling not only the room with sound, but the hallway outside as well.

It's just that the array approach, especially with ribbons, creates an almost laser beam dispersion in the vertical direction. As long as my ears were in line with the array, everything was there. But when seated on one of the provided banquet chairs (which put your ear higher off the floor than a typical lounge chair or couch), the diminished detail in the highest frequencies was immediately apparent. I was seated between 3 and 4 meters from the speakers, and from what I can remember, my ears were still below the lowest tweeter, perhaps in line with the upper woofer.

The fact that the array in the full on Grand Reference starts so much closer to the ground is a huge benefit. I've no doubt at all that the only shortcoming I could find in the Baby is thankfully absent from the Grand.

The items you want to see should be at RMAF in October. Just come to one place and audition all the stuff you want for 3 full days.